Got an Idea

Maybe this has been covered but I couldnt find any posts on it. I see many people are using pvc pipe to build a stand for the live rocks. This is a great idea and I was going to try to take it one step further. Even with my powerheads moving water around I still get stuff sitting on my rocks, mostly the backsides of where the powerheads are blowing. What if I hooked my return pump from my overflow to the pvc pipe and have it return the water from under my rocks? It will help lift any unwanted things from my rocks and corals.
Anyone tried this? is everyone doing this and I just havent been paying attention?
Thanks for any advice, Jeremy

 

IMO the PVC usually gets covered with algae over time anyway so I would think it would just clog the holes you would have to cut in the sides of the PVC... also the top of the PVC has a rock sitting in it so the water flow wouldn't really be beneficial coming out of there... The idea sounds great but I think it would be a pain to maintain the PVC just to keep the water flowing smoothly out of it.

 

If you wanted to, you could build your rocks around your return line..then have a flare or jet nozzle on the end of some loc-line. Thiw ill hide the return line, for the most part, put you will still get the flow you want w/o it being obstructed.

 

Also, with the return in the PVC in the rocks (and thus underwater) wouldnt you need to worry about a siphon being produced in a power-outage?

 

dont worry about a siphon so long at at least one outlet on teh system will come out of the water before the sump overflows. Personally, I dont see an issue with this. sorta of a sprayer bar behind the rocks to give more flow in an area that is notoriously hard to do.

the object is to keep all of the water stirred up so that you dont have a dead spot for detritus to settle. placing and angling this correctly could correct this.

 

This ideas been done. Its fairly common with cichlid systems builds, making your return come out at different spots via pvc plumbing. Its works great, although I've never tried it on a saltwater system.

 

I've done it. However, nothing went to the sump. The spray bar was connected to an over the back closed loop.

EDIT: For clarity, I did have a sump and filtration. This was a separate system just for water circulation.